Description:

Pre-Columbian, Dominican Republic, Taino or Ciboney people, ca. 1200 to 1500 CE. A smooth, round, beige mottled stone ball with russet- and dark-green inclusions forming a wavy appearance across much of the body. Stone balls like this one are found in burials of the Ciboney and Taino people. Its beauty and perfect form demonstrate the mastery that these people had over pecking stone, shaping it through abrasion, and polishing it to a highly-reflective sheen. This example must have been some kind of offering, perhaps because of the intensive work that went into crafting it. Lucite ring display stand included. Size: 3.5" Diameter (8.9 cm).

Fascinatingly, these stone balls may tell us something about the people they memorialize. For example, in excavations at Cueva de los Ninos, archaeologists found a group of child burials where the size and age of child seems to correlate to the size of the ball in the grave (aka, the older the child, the bigger the ball). This example is large for being from a grave and may have commemorated a different kind of event.

Provenance: private Hawaii, USA collection; ex-private B. Dowling collection, San Francisco, California, USA

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#132558

  • Condition: Age-commensurate surface wear and light abrasions, otherwise intact and excellent.

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April 17, 2018 7:00 AM MDT
Louisville, CO, US

Artemis Fine Arts

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